Access a slow-looking exercise related to this work.

Transcript
Marilee Talkington: In this 1982 installation called "Untitled (TV Stone Tower)", the artist Park Hyunki assembles large slabs of stones and a CRT monitor into the shape of a "doltap", which is a stacked stone tower traditionally erected at the entrances to Korean villages or temples.

The large slabs of natural stone are all the same light gray color, with patches of dark gray stained from weathered minerals and organic materials. They are roughly carved in horizontal slabs ranging in height from 3 to 6 inches and from 1 to 2 feet wide. Three stones lie strewn on the ground, as if they tumbled down from a central tower of stacked stones, landing a foot away. Two stones are grouped on the left, and one is on the right of the tower.

The tower itself appears unstable. The stones don’t lay flush and Park doesn’t add any visible screws, binding agents, or mortar between them. It is made up of three stones stacked beneath a 1988 Royal Daewoo television. The boxiness of the television means that it and the slabs are all about the same size, creating a columnar effect. The topmost of the three stones is the thinnest and supports a narrow piece of dark wood acting as a base for the television. An additional fourth, smaller slab of stone is stacked on top of the television.

The television is encased in a box made of an outer veneer of dark wood surrounding a tan-colored plastic frame a little more than 1 foot wide by almost 1 foot high. Within it, a darker plastic rectangle frames the monitor screen. The screen is about one and a half feet wide by one foot high and is left-aligned on the television.

To the right of the screen, twelve thin rectangular gray buttons are stacked in a column. Below the buttons are a row of three gray buttons. These sit above a small speaker, nearly square and a few inches high, integrated into the television.

The monitor plays a grainy color single-channel silent video featuring the same stones that are integrated into the installation. The video is zoomed in on the stones, so they fill the screen and appear seamlessly integrated into the tower. Park effectively melds the organic and technological into his version of a "doltap".

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